mdivgirl

As an old adviser says, the defining characteristic of a historian is that they are congenitally immune to boredom. 

I haven't lived in NJ for years, but you could look at East Brunswick.  I grew up there and the school district is known to be good (though I attended private schools so don't know first hand.) I think there are a few parts that offer reasonable housing options.  It's a little far (maybe 30 minutes) but I am now in grad school with a family with a similar commute and it's quite doable.  My mom has also commuted East Brunswick to hospitals near Rutgers for years and finds it quite doable.

It depends how it's approached. My undergrad advisor, who was hired about 8 years ago, did Early Modern England with particular attention to the history of printing/print culture. But, he also went to Princeton with Anthony Grafton, which undoubtedly helped.
From anecdotal experience in my program, it's more towards transnational approaches. The professors who focus on one or two countries are largely from two or so generations ago.

I currently teach in Korea and have for the last 4 years (going on my 5th year now.) Message me if you would like.

I have taught ESL in central China for the past academic year. The pay is not excellent, but housing/utilities and roundtrip airfare are covered and the cost of living is extremely cheap. One thing might be to consider what age/school level you prefer, because China is one of the few countries where you can teach at the university level with a BA, although you have a MA. It may be easier to get a uni job here than in other countries, however. Personally, I like teaching uni students. I have the freedom to teach what I want and to create my own lesson plans. Universities may be places where this kind of work is appropriate, as primary and secondary schools might have a set curriculum. 
Also, I am not certified to teach and I had only tutoring experience in college before I applied. China is much more lax.
I also have student loans, and I have made enough money to eat out very frequently and also make monthly payments comfortably. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions! 

The only Middle Eastern countries that require a head scarf by law are Iran and Saudi Arabia, if I'm not mistaken. I had a friend who traveled in Amman, Jordan alone, and she said she felt very safe. She dressed in loose clothes, shoulders and knees covered, and men never cat-called her or harassed her in any way. I also know someone who taught in the UAE for a few years. Those countries could be worth looking into.
I lived in Taiwan and taught ESL there for four years. I was studying Chinese at the same time. It's relatively easy to get a visa to live and work there (compared to Japan or Korea.) The money isn't as good, but the cost of living is way, way cheaper. Learning Mandarin is not easy, though. You'd need a couple of years there to get a handle on it. I don't know how that compares to Arabic, though.
Feel free to PM me with questions about Taiwan, if you like.

People on this forum like to help, but your question is too broad (and weird) for us to respond usefully. Are you interested in good answers? If so, try something more like: "When I take notes in OneNote on scientific articles, I often have trouble finding key passages again. What program do you use? Can you suggest ways you make your notes more searchable?"
I have a bit of background in linguistics - of course "there are semantics" in your post. My understanding is, you can't write anything that both uses real words and "doesn't have" semantics. That doesn't mean it's comprehensible in this setting. A text message has different requirements to be understood than does a lab report, and this forum is closer to the latter end of the spectrum.
By the way, if you're curious, I studied poetry at Harvard. Your posts are not coherent as prose. One or two of your turns of phrase (decontextualized) are nice as modern poetry, actually, but have you ever read a newspaper? When trying to communicate content, rather than write poetry, aim for newspaper prose instead.

This is a great thread. I'll add a few things:

1) Gregory Semenza's book "Graduate Study for the Twenty-First Century" is excellent for humanities folk. It has motivated me in many ways to make the most of my time during the MA. Read it!!

2) Don't blather on with personal stories during class discussion. Keep your comments focused on the course material and avoid derailing the whole conversation just so you can chat about your ancestor who was in the Civil War or your visit to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, or whatever. Yes, now and then a personal story is appropriate, but keep it short. Avoid becoming "that person" who only wants to talk about him/herself.

3) Participate in department events, like end-of-semester dinners, important guest lectures, and so on. You don't have to attend every single thing, but be a presence so that others know you care about the department and are taking advantage of the resources offered.

4) School is now your job, so you should treat it like one. Do not miss class without an excellent reason, do not turn in assignments late, do not whine about the grades you are given. (I've seen other first-years making these types of faux pas... they tend to be here straight out of undergrad.)

5) Advice above re: sleep is great, even if I haven't taken it myself. You might barely function with four hours of sleep each night, but give your brain a chance to rest with a good 8 hours so you can work at full mental capacity!

As someone who currently lives in Nashville, and commutes to Vanderbilt from the west side of town, but know many people in the Murfreesboro and Hendersonville areas, I would say the only thing to consider is how much you are frustrated by bumper to bumper traffic. From both of those locations, the traffic coming into Nashville is dense and the commute starts early and ends late. Those areas of town are very nice for families and convenient for creature comforts (grocery stores, big box shopping, pediatric clinics, etc). And if you want to come into Nashville (not during traditional commute hours) the drivers are simple and very much what Google predicts. So, the only question I would give you @mdivgirl is about your tolerance for traffic. Also, with that handle... Are you going to Vandy Div? I am an alum from that program, too, and would be happy to answer any questions, if you would like  best of luck!

i cuddle with my cat. i think it's starting to get serious between us.
 
seriously though. my problem is not being proactive going out and meeting people. last year, I was talking to girls, getting phone numbers, etc. but these are shallow relationships.. and I'm much less interested in that now that research and school has me by the balls.
I've got cycling friends, but boy:girl ratio sucks for me. thought about going to church again. that's a good way to meet people right?

So this is something I've started doing in recent years around this time of year, but kind of independently of the job market: I create a sort of end-of-year report for myself detailing what I did over the school year, because I always end the year feeling like I didn't do a lot (I feel like I get most of my research done over the summer). I list all my research activities (papers in press, papers submitted, conference proceedings; conference talks, invited talks, ongoing projects) and related travel; advising (dissertations, qualifying papers, senior theses, other projects); service (committee work, journal reviewing, conference reviewing, event organization); and teaching, and I pull my teaching evaluations for the year. I also create a plan for summer work, which I usually announce somewhere public to make a commitment (I try to be part of a writing group). I find this very helpful in actually seeing all the invisible things that happen over the course of the year. You get kudos on published papers, but on more or less none of the other things. I don't do this specifically for jobs, but it does make life easier if there's an attractive job I want to apply for. These days I feel like if you told me right now that there's a job with a deadline tomorrow that I should apply for, I'd have no problem getting my materials together in time... 

Started the Masters at 52, finishing it now at 55 - The last class is tonight.
The PhD is being started in September - still at 55, but I figure that I will be 62 when that is complete.
 
 

I took 8 years off between my undergrad and my master's. I started at 32, and now that I'm 37, I'm happily enjoying life as a PhD candidate. My take-away on having been in school for a while: (note, I'm also in a different field like @mdivgirl above)
Perspective - I didn't quit my good job in another field, sell my house, and move across the country just for kicks. This is a degree that I wanted with a solid end-goal in mind.  I took some classes and read a lot about my current field while not officially in school. This essentially gave me several homework-free classes. I didn't really get any negativity with age - from my observations, age discrimination doesn't really start in the academy until you're older, like 50+ (some of my colleagues had a hard time relating to professors significantly younger than them & the reverse is also true).  I also found that, as the oldest person in my cohort, I was able to learn a ton from the younger students - like educational technologies I didn't have in undergrad, books and authors I've never heard of, new music, and cultural perspectives; they also had a good ear to critique me when I wasn't being "relevant." I also had the opportunity to serve as a bit of a cultural resource too, since unlike others in my cohort, I've lived and worked abroad, I'm married and have children, I used to own my house, etc. What I'm saying is that you'll be fine. Go for it and best wishes on your endeavors.

Well, what would be your goal in attending a PhD program? Inertia should not be it. Do you need a PhD for your chosen career path -- do you want to become an academic, or want to pursue another job where a PhD is required? Is there a particular question or set of questions you want to research, that's really burning in your veins? You have some experience doing research, since you've published some papers -- is this something you enjoy doing and want to do more of? A PhD is a time-consuming 5-year commitment, where you earn a low salary and spend your time immersed in research; if you don't go down that path, you could have a job and presumably make a lot more money, so there is also a potential loss in earnings to consider. So, bottom line, what do you want to do? My opinion about you as a PhD applicant depends first and foremost on your answer to that question.

I second the Taiwan recommendation.  If you are looking to teach in after school programs (which most people do) all you need is a bachelor's to get a job and a visa.  I have no idea what the current job market is like here since I am on the end of a decade at the same school and moving back to the US, but Taiwan rates highly from all accounts as a good place to be an ex-pat.

I'm off the waitlist at UVA! Ecstatic!

Well done with securing funding.  My husband is British and did his undergrad at Cambridge and is always very pessimistic about the funding chances so I didn't even try.  (Well, that and the U.K. doesn't acknowledge the adoption of our oldest son so since he came along the plan had to be the US first.)  But it's a good gig if you can get it.

Well, I can't speak on behalf of this process in general, but for me it is just the intersection of reaching out and having the opportunity at hand. I've been teaching there while also in my current program for the last two years. I simply called the director of the humanities area there and it turns out they have had a continual need for adjuncts in Philosophy. I'd recommend simply reaching out to the appropriate contacts of the department you're interested in, whether via e-mail or phone. I've also gotten gigs in my university's language and communications departments doing this.
Basically, send out a lot of e-mails. 

I, too, would suggest going with the mentor you clicked with if you think you can be interested in what he's doing.  I am in a totally different field (religion/history) but I ended up switching time periods in part due to the fact that the mentor who was interested in me was too good to pass up.  In fact, I ended up in a different department to work with him because I know he'll teach me a lot and is invested in my success.  The first professor may end up working out great, but just from the way you present them both I can tell you feel like the second is a better fit for you personally.  If you end up in academia, you can follow your own research passions later.  Learning the ropes well and having a guide you can count on seems pretty invaluable at this stage.  But again, I'm in a different field, so I don't know how it might be for your area.

Nice! I've secured funding for Oxford, so I'll be going to the UK with you!

Thanks @mdivgirl!

This is a completely different field, but I started an M.Div. at a seminary when I was 20.  I am now beginning a Ph.D. program in my late 30's.  I am amazed that despite my years out of academia, I seem to be so much more able to think about high level things than I was during my master's (and I was a pretty decent student then).  There are a lot of advantages brought by maturity, and I am choosing to focus on those.  I haven't entered the program yet, and it may be weird knowing that some of the junior faculty is younger than I am, but the professors I will be working with are older and established and I am looking forward to learning from them all.  

MOO, a demonstration of diligence would include an incoming graduate students plan of action and a reading list organized around areas of interest with a request for feedback.
"To hit the ground running towards my goal of X,, I plan to do A, B, and C. Here's a list of works that I intend to read. If you're so inclined, please let me know what you think."
vs
"What should I do to get ready for my first year?"

I'm a MAPSS alum, and I just went through my admissions cycle for my PhD. More on that in a minute.

The post above with the information from another MAPSS alum is pretty spot on. I'll add some random thoughts to it. Overall, if you have a funded PhD offer, I'd go for it. If you don't have another option, or you have unfunded offers staring you in the face versus a MAPSS funding offer (I had a quite generous MAPSS offer and nothing else, so I had to take it), it's worth looking into. Yes it's a cash cow, but it can also do wonders for you.

-Yes, there tends to be cliques that form along disciplinary lines. It's just something that is bound to happen. You have your preceptor group, which will group you with other students who are doing roughly the same things, which then becomes this sort of recurring cast of characters that show up in all of your classes. My MAPSS cohort was unusually large, so we were simply everywhere. After a while, I began to wonder where all the actual PhD students were, because it seemed like all my classes were 75% MAPSS, 20% PhD, 5% random smattering of undergrads and other professional schools (law, business). My preceptor seemed to be steering a lot of people into the same classes, so we kind of formed this little cohort within ourselves, and ended up bouncing our work off of each other as the year went on. That helped.

-MAPSS is tough, but keep in mind it's not strictly a 9-month program. Yes, you have 3 quarters to do your 9 courses, but you have a year after the end of your final course term to turn in your thesis and still have a faculty reader. You can take even more time after that (met a few people who were doing just that), but then you don't get a faculty reader. Personally, I came into MAPSS with a fully-formed project that got even better the more I got my ass kicked by my profs, and I turned it in at the exact minimum amount of time. I was lucky. The stats, if I recall correctly, are like 20-25% finish in the 9 months, another 50% finish by the end of summer term (essentially gives you about six extra weeks to write), and the vast majority of the remaining 25% are done within the year. Really, it's not that hard to do, they want you to write a journal article-length thesis. Do good work, but don't get overwhelmed with it.

-Do know that MAPSS can be a difficult social experience. You're there for 9 months. It's intense, you're busy, and it's difficult to make close friendships when you're basically all scattered to the wind as soon as it's over anyway. By the time you really know people, you're done.

-Now having been through the PhD application process with them, and talking to my classmates about their experiences, it seems on the whole people have been less than pleased with the actual involvement MAPSS has with your applications versus how they sold us on what that support would be. The only thing they will actually do is have whoever the point person is for your discipline write you one of your letters of recommendation. IF, that is, you apply to 8-10 schools, and they approve of where you're applying. You'll go to a meeting during spring quarter where Professor MacAloon will get up and give a really intimidating speech about the process, they give you this document on what to do, and send you on your way. It wasn't the clearest document, I found it incredibly frustrating at times, but I ended up doing most of what they said and got exactly one acceptance (so far, but it's looking like that's it), which happened to be my dream program. I'm lucky. I wouldn't be surprised if some of my classmates weren't. I talked to some folks who were applying at like 15 schools, others as low as 7. MAPSS' reputation speaks for itself, but it still only gets you so far. If you're not ready, they'll tell you. But the odds are, if you do everything, if you're competent and do good work, and you finish your MA by the time the application season rolls around, they'll support you, and the statistics show you'll probably get a funded offer somewhere (remember, MAPSS stats reflect funded offers only).

-Do be prepared for the fact that MAPSS has a mixed reputation amongst the faculty. Most of the students are pretty cool about MAPSS folk, but the profs are another story. It took me 4-5 months to find a faculty advisor for my thesis, which was an incredibly frustrating and demeaning experience at times. I ended up finding someone who was absolutely wonderful and helped me immensely, but it was a happy accident to say the least. My preceptor was helpful, but not as much as was possible. I got bumped from a class because I was a MAPSS student, I tried fighting it, and was told basically that the prof was within her rights to do it. Some professors really like MAPSS kids, some of them absolutely do not.

-Hyde Park is Hyde Park. Don't worry about living there, it's perfectly fine and has a lot of great restaurants and bookstores and such, but do take the time to figure out how to get out. And allow yourself to do it. Chicago is so incredible, with so much going on, that it's not worth sequestering yourself on the south side. Go and explore. CTA is your friend, as is the weekend UC shuttle bus that stops at the Roosevelt L stop until like 3AM.

-I can say, finally, that my MAPSS experience ended up putting me in the position to be where I wanted to be, and I'm 100% glad I did it. But I was a bit of an odd case in that I had a project that was ready to go, and didn't have to worry about things like figuring out a topic and searching local archives to find a project, which is what a lot of people end up doing. I found the program to be incredibly frustrating at times, UC can be an extraordinarily cruel and cold place, but ultimately, it is what you make it. Don't allow yourself to get sucked up in the negativity that MAPSS engenders in some people, make sure you go to all the grad socials and preceptor group nights and milk every last free drink you can get out of it, don't spend too much time at the Reg (the library) if you don't have to, get in, get out, get your degree. Move on with your life.

I'll also say that for a lot of people, they go into MAPSS thinking they 100% want to get a PhD, and by the end of fall quarter, that number has probably dropped in half. It's a great way of trying out graduate work without having a 5+ year program staring you in the face. If you find out you hate it, finish up, and go to the real world. If you can't wait for more once you're done, all the better.

If I can be of any more help, feel free to ask. I'm a longtime lurker, didn't want to register, but I thought it might help if I did for this.

Haha.  I got into my Ph.D. Program weeks ago and have been mired with all the practical details, but just late night I randomly ran out to my husband in the living room giddily rejoicing in the acceptance.  It's a good feeling.  Bask.